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Washington 15, De Cs.
December 12, 1957

Dre Karl Ms Bowman

3831 Market Street

San Francisco 14, California

Dear Dr. Bownans

i have heard it stated that a camel is a horse put together
by a committee. You are listed as one of 43 members of a committee ~
The Citizens Advisory Committee to The Attorney General « that built
up a horse (camel) with a hump about 40 feet tall. I would like to
enlist your aid in pulling it dow since I don't believe you have —

 

 

  

anything to do with building it up and it is now about to miglend
an honest, sincere, capable group.

| On ~~ 17 BPcOuLe Agaiction Report to A ttorney Genera
Edmund G rhe Citizens 30 Comma fo the Attorney

. oy sie ~<asi avis ne PF Hehe bt baat
Geners joneral, March 26, 107% the follow ng statement occurs. "1
wn that we have 3 n our State medical files 32,000 persons who
ave legally using naveotics medically, although a certain percent-
"ge of then nay be using it itlegaliy’beonuse thay are going te j
several different doctors concurrently.”

The Report goes on to infer, at least, that these 32,000
users were addicts and it adds them to 20,000 illegal users to
give California a total of 52,000. The capable group I refer to
is accepting this, or rather i¢ hes been put before thes for

acceptance.

What I would like for you to do is to find out what the
figure 32,000 actually means. I am asking you to find out because,
being a member of the Comnittee, the responsible person in the
Attorney General's office or Narcotic Enforcement unit of California
would pay more attention to you than to an outsider like myself.
Besides I dont know who the responsible person is.

8 What I think happened in this case is based on the followings
Narcotics agents in many States make continuous and almost immediate
investigations of physicians who prescribe a narcotic, even codeine,
to a patient for a few days. I know of a case where thay have even —
invaded a hospital to investigate the prescribing of a nareotic to ___
& patient who has been operated on for cancer of the tongue with
metastasie, after whieh the superintendent, to avoid trouble,
ovdered a let up on the medicines In another case just a few months
ago, @ physician prescribing a few grains of codeine daily for a
patient from the effects of a sinus operation was investi-
gated and seriously questioned about the legality of his treatment.

 
Dr. Bowman « 12/12/57

In Californs 5 Ahan eckaabhy ‘ih. x gun nawenkhe O34 6
record of 32,000 cases like the foregoing in which a physician
was then, or had been, prescribing a nareotic for a short time
and, of course, there would be some patients who actually got the
drug continuously because of the severity of their symptoms.

Some clerk asked to get up a list of physician cases would
naturally put them all in and whoever wrote up the report would
carelessly or maybe ignorantly count them as addicts.

There is ancther hump perhaps only 20 feet high on this
horse (camel) which I recite merely as an illustration of what
people will do when they go in for saving the world from narcotics.
I think it pinpoints the spirit of the writer of the report. On
page 26 you will find that a pound of heroin costs the consumer in
Galifornia from $768,000 to $1,228,800, The author of the report,
of course, did not take time to figure that at this price a moderate
6 grains a day addict would spend from $219,000 to $350,400 per year.

| ZI don't want you to do anything about this last hump. Its
absurdity is obvious, but the 32,000 addict thing needs your help.

if you don"t feel that you have time to handle it let me know

er es ak Oe ee tee ee 6 ee pens eee
ite

 

With best regards.

Lawrence Kolb

P. 8s < suppese you have seen oF heard of the sapere on nerevtice
by the American Medical J ation now appearing in the
Journal. Tt ie & splendid report that may even cause sone
of the cranks pause to think.